11. Mini talk 2/28/2019

Alice came to our class and talked about museums and some French culture. She explained to us that France tends not to ask what a person’s race is, which I thought was quite interesting because, in America, we tend to ask what a person’s race is for everything.

Alice talked about Musee de Homme. She explained to us that it was a very modern museum when it was first opened in the 1930s. By the pictures that were shown, it seemed more of an “artsy” museum with Art and artifacts. It looked like they didn’t care about what they displayed when it came to culture but just to show off to that world that they had huge displays. I thought it looked a bit better after it was renovated; it was still modern yet scientific. I was quite surprised to see how many skeletons were displayed.

The Museum of Man began as an ethnographic museum, comprised of cultural artifacts from colonized societies. The purpose and makers of the objects were not appreciated; instead, they were put on display, which caused the museum to become overcrowded. This perpetuated the idea that museums were exclusive for the rich and elite, but American museums incorporated the idea that museums could be enjoyed by everyone. In the 1930s, the Museum of Man was renovated, which provided the exhibits with better labels and organization. I was very interested to hear that France was the capital of racial science. Setting out to confirm the hypothesis of the hierarchy of race, human remains were brought to the museum for study. Coinciding with World War II, the lack of scientific evidence to back biological ranking of races led France to stop recognizing race as a category, even today.

The original museum (that is now the Musee de L’homme) was first built in the late 19th century. When it first opened, it primarily displayed African, Native American and Asian artifacts. In the 1930’s, many paintings were based off of artifacts seen in the museum, and the more modern art movement began in Europe at this time. In the 1930’s the museum displayed a lot of skulls and sculptures that dealt with ethnography and the supposed “differences” between races.

I found Alice Conklin’s presentation very interesting. I like how she talked about the museum and their views at the time when the museum was started. One thing I found interesting was how they had research on humans including different physical features, like skulls or hair, from different races. I understand that was the way people thought in the time period, however I am surprised that they still display it considering all of the controversy with racism in today’s society. I wonder if there is any difference, if they weren’t labeled could a scientist tell what race each skull was from? If not, why are they still displayed?

Today our speaker came in to talk to us about the genealogy of the musee de l’homme. She also gave us a short introduction about how the French do not like the word race. She showed us various pictures of the museum. She talked a bit about the renovations and what the museum used to look like and what it looks like now. She showed us some images of the artifacts that are present in the museum. She talked about some of the background of how the museum was made. She also discussed Josephine Baker, which was interesting, I don’t think I have ever heard of her to be honest. This lecture was pretty interesting because we were hearing about the background of a museum we will be going to. We will know a little about the museum before we even get there which is pretty cool. She discussed the physical anthropology section a bit, which I was interested in because I used to want to study anthropology. She is very knowledgeable about this museum which to me is interesting that she has so much passion towards it. World War II era was discussed which was really fascinating, I took a class about the Holocaust last semester, so this was interesting to see other ways that that related to other things that I learn about.